What’s Trending in Trade Show Exhibit Design

Trade shows are hands down, the most fun way to market to your clients with the added advantage of having the best ROI. Participating in trade shows is like no other marketing out there. It’s personal, experiential, with the opportunity to engage a very targeted group. New trends in exhibit space are always evolving. The present tide is focused on total environment creation, encouraging attendees into the booth space as it beckons as a place to gain knowledge and participate in learning about new products and services. Your exhibit design and functionality need to employ these critical components for attracting your core demographic into your booth area.

Pulling together your overall event Brand and Marketing theme for the ultimate experience is a multi pronged process. It takes time and resources to make sure your booth can stand out from the other vendors on the show floor. It’s about creating a cool and unique experience within your booth. You want attendees to feel welcome as they flow along your exhibit footprint. Think of your booth space more as an educational extension of your business.

It’s All About the Experience

Focus on a unique experience for your booth. What story are you telling the buyers? Is it seamlessly integrated with all of your other Marketing platforms? Creating a customized, individualized experience within your booth will attract visitors. Get away from the old school mentality thinking that the larger the expo booth, the more booth visitors you’ll get. This is not the case at all. It’s all about what you’re providing, how you market your brand, and what you’re doing to strikingly project your story to the crowd.

When planning your overall booth theme, be sure it incorporates every detail – meaning, the look and feel of the booth, staff apparel, collateral materials, promotional giveaways, marketing pre and post show and aligning and participating in attendee touch points happening at the event. If your theme tips its’ hat as an homage to Pokémon (for current topic example), make sure your entire trade show experience includes an element from the theme. Have your emails designed to match your booth concept, look and feel. You want your exhibit environment to look complete, exciting, informative, clean and professional. There is nothing worse than a poorly executed attempt at being different than the pack and having it play out as sloppy, amateurish or convey a negative impression of your brand.

Following are Trends in exhibit design that offer you the ability to create the visage and impression that attracts attendee buyers to your booth.

Specialty Lighting:

Lighting is a critical feature of exhibit design. Lighting creates ambiance….it can set the mood and tone of the display environment. It is as simple as properly lighting your products or as subtle as having multiple scenes or moods in your space that reinforce your Brand message and sync with your corporate image. There are unlimited ways to utilize lighting in an exhibit space and a multitude of illumination products that are available that offer an exceptional Exhibit display.

Unique Exhibit Structural Designs:

A distinctive style of exhibit design is definitely trending. Your time at a trade show is your opportunity to engage with a specific targeted audience. Grabbing attention through visual stimulation breeds curiosity, resulting in increased foot traffic into your Exhibit booth. Trade shows are not boring and uninteresting ventures, in fact , they need to be quite the opposite to have successful participation. Have fun and be bold with your structural style! Be extraordinary by integrating lightweight aluminum frame/tension fabric systems, Hard-wall panels or modular aluminum interlocking systems into seamless hybrid fabrications. The next time you attend a trade show, take notes of design styles and features that you like and that others are drawn to. You want your Curb appeal to be a gravitational pull into your booth. Share these ideas with your exhibit design team and you will be surprised at how your own distinctive design will come together using ideas from multiple fabrication styles and substrate materials.

Graphics Galore:

Large format, bold, and crisp Graphics color your Booth environment and effectively tie in the theme and branding in your exhibit space. Graphics add a “personality” to the exhibit space. You want to tell your story concisely and spirited, striking images are the most effective tool to accomplish that objective. The old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words holds true on the Convention show floor. Your graphics are utilized for a variety of purposes. In the design stages, focus on elements such as curb appeal, product highlights or information, advertising and marketing campaign roll-outs, which differentiate your company from your competitors….the uses of spectacular color graphics are endless. A well designed exhibit space will harness the power of graphics that are interesting and relevant for the show attendees. It is imperative to allocate enough of your exhibit space budget for graphics that add that extra touch.

Seating:

Don’t overlook seating options in your exhibit space; vibrant colors and comfort are becoming more and more popular. Show attendees appreciate a place to sit for a few minutes to rest, take notes and interact with your company’s staff manning the booth. Your exhibit space should be naturally inviting when there is seating available (both private conversation areas and open seating). Whether you are using Counter stools, love seats or arm chairs, much of the seating is now available with built-in charging stations for our beloved personal electronic devices. As an exhibitor, your goal is to have people enter your space……seating that has chargers or looks appealingly comfy encourages potential customers to enter your space without having that dreaded “being solicited” feeling. People are more open to engaging and being engaged in a relaxed and comfortable environment. No matter the style that fits your overall image, look at all the options (such as contemporary, uber-modern, art deco, traditional, nouveau industrial or country charm) to chose the perfect complementary seating as part of the total booth design.

Extension of Your Business:

Another emerging trend in exhibit design is to create your trade show booth space to replicate your actual physical brick and mortar business outlets. By doing so, you are bringing the store to your potential new clients. By extending your brand in this way, customers feel that they have already had an experience with your business when they walk into your physical location. If clients are already familiar with the interior of your physical business, seeing it on the show floor is an added level of comfort like seeing an affable neighbor.

Remember, your exhibit space is the linchpin of successful trade show experiences. Las Vegas Expo – Complete Show Services is overflowing with original ideas when it comes to exhibit design and functionality. Give us a call if you need help stitching together your ideas or if you would like us to design an experiential environment just for you. Remember, run away from cookie cutter, outmoded designs offered by Display builders that are stuck in the past using what is NOT trendy or cutting edge. Don’t be caught appearing like an “out of touch, stuck in dinosaur time” type of business. Today’s customers are market savvy and pay attention to businesses that stay up to date with the latest technologies or materials. We’d be thrilled to assist …..